Communications of the ACM
Innovation Is Overrated: A Provocation
Digital innovation is not working in the interest of the whole of society. It is time to radically rethink its purpose without…
From ACM Opinion
Beyond The bitcoin Bubble
layer innocent nothing argue pottery winner cotton menu task slim merge maid The sequence of words is meaningless: a random array strung together by an algorithm...
From ACM Opinion
Congress Renews Warrantless Surveillance, and Makes It Even Worse
In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed that the National Security Agency was legally collecting millions of Americans' phone calls and electronic communications—including...
From ACM Opinion
Meltdown and Spectre Expose the Dark Side of Superfast Computers
Hundreds of gadget makers and software companies at this week's annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas are staking the success of their newest products...
From ACM Opinion
There Is No Such Thing as 'the' Blockchain
How do you quadruple your stock price without lifting a finger?
From ACM Opinion
Trust in Digital Technology Will Be the Internet's Next Frontier, For 2018 and Beyond
After decades of unbridled enthusiasm—bordering on addiction—about all things digital, the public may be losing trust in technology.
From ACM Opinion
The Big Tech Trends to Follow at Ces 2018
Imagine this: When you leave the house, your air conditioner and lights turn off automatically. Then when a motion sensor detects a person in the house, like your...
From ACM Opinion
8 Overly Confident, Mostly Pessimistic Predictions About Tech in 2018
It was a very strange year for technology companies. They have become a "bipartisan whipping boy," a new sexist institution, responsible for the muddying of the...
From ACM Opinion
What Telegram Owes Iranians
After the 2009 Green Movement—a failed attempt to overturn a stolen presidential election through street protests—the Iranian political establishment took away...
From ACM Opinion
10 Ways Tech Will Shape Your Life in 2018, For Better and Worse
Is the outlook for technology in 2018 exciting—or slightly terrifying? Flip a coin. You'd be right either way.
From ACM Opinion
3 Brain Technologies to Watch in 2018
Technologies to detect brain activity—fine, we'll come right out and call it mind reading—as well as to change it are moving along so quickly that "a bit of a gold...
From ACM Opinion
License Expired: The Ars Technica 2018 Deathwatch
Wow, that 2017, though. Quite a year. Let's grab a Juicero and take a moment to reflect on the utter dumpster fires that we've witnessed over the past 12 months...
From Communications of the ACM
Defining American Greatness: IBM from Watson to Trump
Reflections on a firm that encapsulated the American Century.
From Communications of the ACM
Technology and the Failure of the University
Considering the double-edged sword of learning technologies in various academic settings.
From Communications of the ACM
Ask Not What Your Postdoc Can Do For You . . .
Seeking more effective strategies for training and nurturing CS postdocs to ensure their success.
From ACM Opinion
The Year the Home Button Died
The most convincing lie Steve Jobs ever told was "you already know how to use it."
From ACM Opinion
We Ignore Iran at Our Peril
When it comes to cyberweapons, America is an elephant and Iran is a flea. Still, a flea can be a persistent nuisance, especially for the unprotected.
From ACM Opinion
Don't Get Your Kid an Internet-Connected Toy
For last-minute shoppers, tech toys hold a special appeal.
From ACM Opinion
The Bitcoin Boom: In Code We Trust
You don't need brilliant financial analysis skills to notice that Bitcoin is in a bubble.
From ACM Opinion
Goodbye Internet: How Regional Divides pended the World Wide Web
So, there you have it: 2017 was the year that finally broke the internet.
From ACM Opinion